Monday, October 21, 2013

Teaching friends and a crafting exchange

a fun afternoon -- making English toffee with friends

A couple of friends and I get together about once per month or 6 weeks, as both a social get-together, and as a teaching moment, sharing, with one another, something fun that we know how to do. We are just an informal, small group of women, who enjoy cooking and crafts.

To give you an idea of what we do: in July, we met at one friend's house where she showed us other two how she makes her delightful green pepper jelly. In September, they came to my house and we made rosemary vinegar together. This past Saturday, we met at the third friend's house and she showed us how she makes her fantastic English Toffee. Yummy, yummy stuff!

In November, I am hoping we can gather at my house, again, this time to craft/prepare gifts for the holidays. The plan is for each of us to come up with one craft/recipe that we've made as gifts before, and arrange for the supplies for all three of us to produce that gift item. By the end of the afternoon/evening, we should each have produced 3 different gifts, suitable for gifting in the holiday season.

For my own gift-craft, I'm thinking of bath fizzies, packaged in home-sewn sheer fabric bags. And as just a quick and fun item, to add on, I have some rubber stamps and ink pads, for us to make to/from gift tags.

With this crafting exchange, we'll share our knowledge, have some fun creating and chatting, and get a few more small gifts taken care of for the holidays.

If you'd like to put together your own crafting exchange, the plan for one is quite simple. Find 2 friends who would enjoy such an afternoon. Have each person: come up with a home-made gift idea, make one sample (to show each other how it will turn out), and put together the supplies for each person in the group. Our group also brings snack-y foods for some time to just sit and chat a while.

10 comments:

You're group sounds wonderful. As I did a quick thought, I couldn't think of one crafty friend except the one who does glass work which requires special equipment. I do get together with friends, but usually just for catching up. However, maybe I could start a trend.

Hi Live and learn,Well, maybe someone will pop into mind soon. Ours began not as a crafting group, but more cooking. Maybe something more along the lines of cooking would work for you and a few friends.

That's a great idea. One of the things I miss about living communally while doing fieldwork is sharing recipes with other people while we cook together. I should start a cooking exchange with some friends :)

What fun you must have with your friends! I have been crafting away getting ready for Christmas but it would be much nicer to have company while I do. I do have a neighbor who will bring a craft she is working on, usually needlepoint. I enjoy the quiet afternoons when she does this, it gives me time to slow down and pull out my own stitching. It's a unique experience we both enjoy.

That's so nice that you do this with your friends! I'm thinking that our home school group mommies would have fun with that once the kiddos were done with their activity. We usually let them play afterward, so this would be perfect.